Sacrifice
by Broken-and-fallen
Summary: RikuSora AxelRoxas. Set up after KH2. Sora and Riku wake up and find themselves in Hollow Bastion. Everyone is missing and new mysteries are arising with Organization XIII. RxR
1. I

Authors Comments – 

**1. Welcome to _Sacrifice_, my first long _Kingdom Hearts_ fan fiction. I've been working on this storyline for quite a while and I hope you all like it.**

**2. At this point I haven't played KH2. I'm writing this on a basis of information I've gathered from the net; so if anything is OOC or wrong, please tell me so (nicely!) in a review and I'll try and either change it or work on it. **

**3. This fan fiction contains SLASH. That means m/m relationships! If you don't like that then don't read!**

**4. _Kingdom Hearts_ doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Square. **

**Chapter One**

It didn't feel like home. Something was wrong. Sora remembered falling asleep in a hammock on the beach, rocking gently in the breeze. Riku had been leaning against the paopu tree a few metres away, arms folded behind his head and legs crossed. It had been peaceful, and relaxing.

But suddenly it didn't feel like home.

Cerulean eyes snapped open as Sora jerked awake. The rocking and sea breeze was gone and his cheek was numb with cold. Pushing himself up he gasped as he found himself on a floating glacier in the familiar landscape of Hollow Bastion.

"Riku?" He called, getting to his feet.

"Your finally awake."

He turned to see the silver-haired teen sitting on the edge of the glacier, staring towards the castle with a frown on his face.

"Riku, what's going on?" Sora rubbed at his eyes and looked up again, hoping he was dreaming. Riku shrugged, and stood.

"I don't know, one minute we were in Destiny Islands, and I think I fell asleep. And then, when I woke up-"

" – We were back here." Sora finished for him firmly, hands clenched.

"Might as well head up to the castle," Riku sighed. "I'm freezing my ass off here."

Sora nodded and blew on his hands. The two had grown accustomed to Island life, and were dressed only in casual shirts and swimming trunks. Sora followed Riku as they jumped from one slippery glacier to another, until they reached the lift to take them up to the castle.

As the lift was moving, Riku looked beside him to see Sora's lips were turning blue.

"You okay?" he asked, noticing his own hands were shaking. The brunette nodded fiercely at him, and when the lift reached the top they both sprinted for the castle gates.

Once inside, Riku took Sora over to the fountain.

"Here, the waters hot."

Sora stuck his hands under the spray and sighed in relief, rubbing the warm water over his face. Riku followed suit and ran his fingers once through his hair, looking around.

"I wonder where the others are." He said, looking up towards the library. "We should try and find them."

"Yeah, maybe they can tell us why we're here." Sora jogged up the staircase with a determined frown. Riku paused and glanced through one of the other doorways shaped like the Heartless symbol. Turning away from the bad memories, he followed Sora into the library.

--

"Hello? Leon! Aerith!" Sora called, making his way through the maze of bookshelves. "Anybody home?"

Riku headed slowly up the stairs, looking around at the stain glass windows. Sora was already on the second floor, looking curiously through some papers that were spread across the desk there.

"What's that?" the older teen asked, approaching to peer over his shoulder. Sora chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully, eyes scanning across the fluid handwriting on the page.

"I… I'm not sure. It **looks** like information on the Nobodies!"

Riku immediately grabbed a sheet and read the first few lines.

"It's like some sort of warped version of Ansem's reports." He said. "Listen to this –

I can't be certain of what to do with these Shells. A Shell can't be anything except a Shell until the Shell has found its true soul. These Shells are docile until they find their soul, and until they do they are worthless. I will keep them safe until their time comes, or until their souls arrive."

Riku whistled and dropped the sheet. Sora raised an eyebrow and picked up another sheet. On it was a pull page sketch of what looked like a Keyblade. It was detailed, with strings of flowers around the handle and near the blade itself. The blade was decorated into the shape of snowflakes and stars, and the artist had coloured it in soft blues and whites.

"What's this, a design…?"

"Look." Riku pointed down to the corner of the page, where scratched in ink were two small words. **The Sacrifice**.

"The Sacrifice." Sora read, and dropped it back onto the table. "Come on, let's go try and find everyone."

Riku nodded and they left through the door to one of the lifts. Looking around Sora could almost feel Riku tense beside him.

"You all right?" he asked, stopping at one of the staircases. Riku shook his head.

"It's too quiet around here, where is everyone?"

Sora shrugged. "Maybe they all went…out."

"Out."

"Well, yeah."

"Out **where**?"

Sora floundered for a moment, and then sighed. "You're probably right, something's wrong."

Riku punched his arm playfully and grinned.

"What, you're not afraid, are you Sora?"

The brunette scowled at him and flipped his head. "Of course not! Please, I'm the **Keybearer**, remember?" he grinned and ran through another doorway. Riku followed, and they found themselves on one of the open area's running along the outside wall of the castle.

Sora stopped and looked around. Three years ago he had been running along these area's slicing Heartless left right and centre, now he walked with Riku, in uncomfortable peace.

The older teen walked over to the edge and peered down the castle wall and into the abyss.

"If we keep going this way we'll end up at the Castle Chapel." Riku stated, looking over his shoulder to Sora.

"I know. If Leon and the others aren't there, there's nowhere else they could be, right?"

"They could be dead." Riku stated matter-of-factly. Sora glared at him.

"That's not funny, Riku."

The silver-haired teen nodded once, facing away from Sora. "You're right, I'm sorry."

"Let's go," Sora said, turning. "I want to hurry up – URK!"

Riku snapped around as soon as he heard Sora cry out. Before he could react, Sora had been sent flying backwards off the ledge and down into the mist below.

"SORA!" Riku yelled, and stared. The shadow Heartless that had stricken Sora across the chest blew Riku a kiss, and disappeared into shadows once more.

Freezing for only a moment, Riku turned and dived over the side after Sora.

--

Sora was winded as he hit the water with crushing speed, his body curling underneath the water. For a moment there were only stars in his vision, and his mind was still taking its time catching up with the pain. Then there was an explosion of bubbles next to him, and a strong arm was slipping around his waist, pulling him upwards towards the surface.

Sora cried out as his head broke the water, gasping deeply for air. Riku bobbed in the water next to him, and shook sopping wet silver locks out of his face. Looking around hazily, Sora could see they were in the depths of Hollow Bastion, the gateways and nodes on the walls around them set for unlocking the castle door.

Sora's vision swam, and Riku helped him paddle to the ground.

"What was that? Heartless…it was…Heart…" Sora gasped, resting his head back against the concrete. Riku nodded weakly, also breathing heavily. He opened his mouth to say something, and felt the words die in his throat. Looking up, his eyes grew wide.

As they fixed on the door right in front of the two, marked clearly with four large black letters.

**XIII.  
**


	2. II

Chapter Two 

Riku slowly got to his feet, eyes fixed on the door in front of him. Sora regained his breath and rolled over onto his stomach, before also standing. He came to stand beside Riku, holding his stomach gingerly.

"Is that…" he said quietly.

"Yeah." Riku breathed, and stepped back.

The hallway was long and thin, and had thirteen doors lining it.

**I. II. III. IV.V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII.**

"Okay, this is weird." Sora stated, and then paused. "Hey, look at that."

He pointed to the door marked **XI**. It was slightly open, and hanging slightly off its hinges. Stepping over to the door, Sora and Riku exchanged glances. The brunette took a deep breath, and pulled it wide open. Inside it wasn't a room, it was a crystal mould, much alike to the ones that held the seven princesses of Heart at Hollow Bastion three years ago.

This one was empty.

"Thirteen doors." Sora said, blue eyes wide.

"To hold thirteen people." Riku replied, and they both suddenly felt very cold.

--

"Where are you going?" Riku asked as Sora started running down the length of the hallway, eyes scanning along the numbers on the doors. The Keybearer didn't answer, and then stopped at the end of the hallway. Chasing after him, Riku realised he had come to the door marked **XIII** again.

A determined line set on his face, Sora lunged forward and pulled the door open. Riku's aqua eyes widened as they both found themselves face to face with another crystal mould. This one wasn't empty.

Sora gasped as a red light shot out of his body, and straight into the sleeping Roxas's chest.

--

"This is bad, what if it was number Eleven was the one who broke into the Library?" Aerith questioned, following Leon's quick strides across the Grand Crest.

"He might know-"

"No." Leon shook his head, activating one of the lifts. "If it was him, we would know."  
"But Leon, we have to be more careful-"

"Hey! Wait for me!" Yuffie cried, running up to them. "You guys are mean! You left me all alone to clean up that mess-"

"Did you find him?" Leon cut her off, frowning with irritation as the lift came to the edge of the platform.

"Well, no…" Yuffie sighed, and Aerith patted her back sympathetically.

"He's been gone for too long," Leon murmured. "Something's definitely wrong."  
The ninja rolled her eyes and punched him softly in the arm. "Well, duh. Thankyou Captain Obvious."  
They stepped onto the lift and he leant against the rail, thinking quietly.

"Has Cloud contacted us yet?" he asked Aerith. She shook her head softly.

"He only just got to the Island last time he sent us a message. I don't know if he's found Sora yet, though."

Yuffie grumbled something under her breath and hung her head back.

"This stinks," she scowled, and held her stomach, looking queasily over the edge of the lift. "And I don't feel well."

"You never feel well on these lifts." Aerith chided, and Yuffie was about to snap a reply when Leon cut them off.

"Look!"

Turning, the girls stared towards where he was pointing.

"I don't see anything." Yuffie mumbled, squinting. As the lift reached the platform, Leon shot off first, running along to the rail and kneeling down.

"Look." He beckoned them forward and Yuffie shrugged at Aerith, joining him at the rail.

"It's bent, see?" Leon tapped the pole for emphasis, and Aerith gasped.

"Something must have hit it!"

"Something heading straight over the edge." Yuffie noted, and the three peered over the rail into the mist.

Leon smirked triumphantly and stood, heading down the Great Crest to activate another lift.

"Down we go." He said, and Aerith followed. Yuffie groaned and trailed after them onto the lift.

"I hate you guys." She whined, squeezing her eyes shut as the lift lurched and then descended at an increasing speed.

Leon just rolled his eyes.

--

"Damn it, Sora! Wake up!" Riku shook the brunette's shoulders roughly. After the light had entered the supposedly asleep Roxas-clone, Sora had blinked, shuddered, and then fallen unconscious. Riku glared around him, looking for **something** to wake the other teen up. There was a splintering sound, and when Riku looked up he could see the Roxas clone falling out of his crystal mould, the jewels breaking and snapping around him so that they couldn't support his weight anymore.

His limp body hit the ground beside Sora's, and Riku resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Oh come on! What am I meant to do? I can't carry both of you back to the castle!" He shook Sora's shoulders once more. "SORA! Wake up!"

"Need some help?"

Riku turned sharply, aqua eyes fixing on the three figures stepping off the lift that hovered just above the waters skin. The brunette male who spoke smirked, and Riku felt himself smirking back.

--

"Ugh."

Sora opened his eyes, wondering where the hell he was. Sitting up, he saw Riku leaning back against the edge of the four-poster bed, watching him patiently with a bunch of papers in his hand.

"Took your time." He muttered, seemingly irritated by something.

"Yeah… where am I? Wait! What about Roxas? That was him wasn't it?" Sora shot out of the bed, got his legs tangled in the sheets, and face planted into the floor. This seemed to brighten Riku's mood, and he was grinning as he helped Sora to his feet.

"Slow down, I was planning to do all the hurting!"

"What?"

Riku rolled his eyes, and dropped the papers he was holding onto a nearby table. "You were stupid enough to collapse on me, idiot. I think I have the right to hurt you for being so reckless."

Sora scowled at him and planted his hands on his hips. "That makes no sense, Riku."  
"I'd hate to break up this little lovers tiff of yours, but blondie's awake."

Sora quickly turned to see Yuffie leaning against the doorway with a grin on her face.

"Yuffie!"

"Lovers tiff?" Riku mumbled under his breath.

Sora ran over to her and they hugged.

"Blondie? You mean Roxas?" Sora asked, and Yuffie nodded.

"So it really was him." Riku said softly, and shoved Sora's shoulder softly to make him step out of the room.

"Let's go visit him, maybe he can tell us what the hell is going on."

Yuffie led them to the room down the hall and Aerith greeted them at the doorway, holding a bowl of warm water and a towel in her hands.

"He has a monster of a headache." She explained, sidling past them and disappearing down the hall. Sora entered quietly, looking towards the bed where he could see Roxas sitting with his back facing them, looking out through the stain glass window. The cut glass shone different colours over his face as he turned to look at them, a stoic expression on his face.

"Sora." He said, as the brunette approached.

"Roxas? Is it really you?"

Roxas glanced from Sora to Riku, and then nodded. "Yes. Sort of."

Riku frowned. "Sort of?"  
Yuffie shrugged. "He can't remember everything."

The bed sunk a few inches as Sora dropped onto it besides Roxas.

"What do you remember?" he asked, blue eyes meeting blue.

"I remember you, and Riku. I remember Namine and the Keyblade and the King." He paused and looked away. "I remember the organization, but no names. Only glimpses of faces…"

"Oh." Sora looked away as well, casting a glance at Riku who was leaning against the bedpost, frowning.

"How… how are you here?"

Roxas looked up at the question. "I don't know. Maybe I'm not really here at all…" he sighed and flopped backwards onto the bed. "Maybe we've all gone mad."

Riku turned and left the room.


End file.
